50 Greatest Soap Couples: #37 Robert & Anna From GENERAL HOSPITAL

COUPLE: Robert Scorpio & Anna DevaneSHOW: GENERAL HOSPITALRANK: 37PLAYED BY:Robert: Tristan RogersAnna: Finola HughesYEARS:1985-1992 (with many returns and reunions over the years including in 2012)

STORY:
Anna came to Port Charles in 1985 when Robert was still married to Holly. It was revealed that not only were Robert and Anna former WSB partners, they also were married and shared a daughter, Robin. Over the next several years Robert and Holly split up, Anna fell in love with Duke, Holly returned and reunited with Robert, Robert left then returned and became PI partners with Anna, and much drama ensued along with plenty of mob-hunting and romantic complications on the way to Robert and Anna finally getting married again. In 1992 they were supposedly killed in a boat explosion but we learned years later they were very much alive.

IMPACT:
Robert and Anna worked because of the electric chemistry of Rogers and Hughes. Robert and Holly, and Duke and Anna were also popular couples in the 1980s that nearly made this list, but Robert and Anna epitomized the show during that time. Fans have rooted for them to reunited for the past two decades and have seen glimpses of their greatness in returns to GENERAL HOSPITAL and appearances in GENERAL HOSPITAL: NIGHT SHIFT. Their legacy continues to be played out in daytime with Robin's "death" earlier this year. They even have a grandchild on the show now in Emma.

The couple was nominated for a 1992 Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Wedding. Hughes won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991 as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Hughes brought the character of Anna over to ALL MY CHILDREN for a time but this year joined GH full-time again. Rogers has been starring in THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and indie soap THE BAY in recent years.

Robert was good with Anna but he was exceptional with Holly, their romantic chermistry just oozed all over the place. They were really hot together and romantic to boot. ITA with Daniel, I don't understand how the TPTB can have Tristan Rogers on board and not keep him. The fans loved Robert Scorpio.

So happy they made the list. I agree, they do define that time of GH. Obviously they spent more time apart than together but I enjoyed them in whatever capacity. They were/are one of the best duos ever.

In what universe were these two a "couple" from 1985-1992? Robert and Anna as CHARACTERS epitomize this time, but the two pairings that did NOT make a list were FAR more popular as couples than were RnA who lasted less than a year at a time when viewers were fleeing GH in droves ...

I think Robert and Anna are amazing! And I really wish Robert had stayed in town a little longer.

I believe Robert and Anna were so popular and still are, is because of the way the flashbacks were written. If Anna had come to town and just came out and said she used to be married to Robert, things would have been different. Yes, Holly and Robert were great together, but the writers held off on the Anna and Robert couple until their last years on the show at the time and then get pulled apart by being "dead."

Robert and Anna were and still are GREAT! Fell instantly in love with them during their amazingly told backstory, a love story told entirely in flashbacks. Kudos to Gloria Monty for telling it that way. All those years they were apart, no matter who they were with you knew they never stopped loving each other and were desstined to be together again one day. And they will again be together cause in the end Robert loves Anna and Anna loves Robert!

WLS is rewriting history to choose a couple that was 10x more off than on, had a cover in SOD that said, "Why the Wedding?" and whose show plummeted to 7th place during their short lived coupledom in the early 90s. (http://scorpiofiles.com/articles/finaxed.html) Truthfully, RNA were mostly co-parents, exes that could barely get along, and deeply in love with others most of their time on screen.But that's not what disturbs me and causes me to dismiss this list and its creators. In the process of naming RNA #37 couple, you for some reason needed to diminish the 2nd and 3rd most popular Super Couples of the 80s, GH’s Golden Years. You guys owe the fans of these two adventurous, romantic, much loved (and in love) Super Couples a big fat apology. And also an apology to the dearly departed Monty sisters who made them so huge. Surely in retrospect, they would want Robert & Holly and Duke & Anna to be acknowledged and not Gloria's second, disastrous run in the early 90s. You have taken what 80s fans hold dear and tried to rewrite the legend. No thanks. I’m not buying it.

Great post, JR. Unfortunately, for me, nothing WLS says about the other couples I love hold any value for me now. It's just empty words because two of the most popular couples of all time (#1 couples on the #1 soap) didn't make this list. Shame on you WLS. You owe 80s fans an apology.

Anyone who says they always wanted Robert & Anna together is an outlier. The fact is that the majority of viewers shipped Robert with Holly and Anna with Duke. Here is proof.Daytime TV magazine, April 1987http://www.annaandduke.com/images/fanssaved2642.jpghttp://www.annaandduke.com/images/fanssaved2652.jpgRelevant quotes from the above linked article: “Fans never really approved of an Anna/Robert match up, even though they knew that Robert had fathered Anna’s daughter, Robin. They’d rather see Robert happily married to Holly, even if it means letting him live in Australia and only return to Port Charles to visit every now and then…. Thanks to favorable viewer reaction, instead of ending up on cellblock row, it looks like Duke Lavery will just have to serve out a life sentence as Anna’s true love.“General Hospital fans know how to get what they want. Their letters helped keep Tristan Rogers (Robert) and Emma Samms (Holly) a love team.”Furthermore, there are the ratings. GH was the top-ranked soap while Robert & Holly were together. That continued during Anna & Duke’s reign. When Robert & Anna married, the show fell to the 7th-ranked soap. As for the legacy of these other two, superior couples, anyone who could not see the heat and unresolved emotion between Robert & Holly during their February/March return this year was not paying attention. There is far more potential story for them with the resolution of Ethan’s paternity than there is for yet another go-round of bickering Robert and Anna.Anna & Duke’s relationship, meanwhile, had a huge impact on the #41 couple on your list, Robin & Stone. Robin spoke to Luke about how her relationship with Stone mirrored her mother and stepfather’s. And on current GH, every interaction Anna has with Sonny is impacted by the fact that mobsters like Sonny took Duke from her.Finally, there’s the fact, as evidenced by these comments, that Robert & Holly and Anna & Duke still have devoted, passionate fans more than 20 years after either couple had an intact onscreen relationship.

I ONLY ever liked HOlly when she was with Luke. She and Robert had less than zero chemistry and were a snoozefest. Duke was some loser that Anna got stuck with when TR quit the show. I LOVED R&A from Anna's first appearance. The ONLY other actress TR ever had romantic chemistry with was Sharon Wyatt's Tiffany.

So spare me calling the MANY MANY Robert and Anna fans 'outliers' (you mean out and out liars? Can't really tell by your spelling) I had to suffer thru HOlly, Duke, Casey, Shep, Edge, Autumn, Cheryl and Katherine to get to the REAL DEAL of Robert and Anna. They were ALWAYS madly in love which is why Robert from the day she came back couldn't get Anna out of his head. Called her name while in bed with two of them. When Anna was taken hostage by Grant she dreamed of ROBERT saving her. She couldn't stand his dating anyone other women. He went insane to rescue her from Putnam. He went nuts when Faison first was revealed on that island to protect her. It went on and on.

Their wedding was beautiful. It was two people who got past the hurt of the past and were together out of TRUE LOVE. Not because Anna was being deported and was having his BFF's kid.

And if Sean hadn't lied all those years ago making Robert believed Anna was a traitor and that he killed an innocent agent over her there never would have been Robert with HOlly or Anna with loser Duke. Loved R&A from day one and still do. Don't care how Hackilate tries to rewrite history. They got remarried and were madly in love as they ALWAYS had been and were only apart due to believing death had occured. And in 2008 they were in Robert's hospital bed declaring each other 'the one' and how much they're in love with each other. Have every bit of it from day one twice over on tape and once on dvd. No amnesia here.

zyz - what's your point about Y&R being #1 in 1988? Robert & Holly and Duke & Anna were the #1 couple on the #1 soap. Granted, GH wasn't #1 for DnA's entire run but R&A (or any GH couple after them) never got GH to #1 either. R&H and D&A should justifiable be on this list.

As someone pointed out, Robert and Anna's characters epitomized the era...but as a couple- they were not part of GH's golden era. In fact, they were a part of a big crash of GH. and they were married less than a year- both times included. making them #37 and denying the couplings that pushed them to a higher level of GH fame is like saying Bill Eckert was one of the best of the characters in GH history.

Also, Holly and Robert didn't *split up* Holly DIED and Robert mourned her for years and she was mentioned in ALL of his relationships after. Yes, in pure soapy story telling- Holly turned up alive in 1992.

I found yet another error (yes, another one!) or more an omission. Finola Hughes won her Best Actress Emmy for scenes with Duke dying. It had nothing to do with RNA and hardly shows RNA's impact. Who wrote this stuff? It's in total disregard to history.

I think the list creators have a huge bias on this. Not because they picked Robert and Anna, but because they negated the popularity of their supercouple pairings to prop THEIR favorite at the expense of GH history. Shame on you.

I happen to believe R&A belong on the list and as a fan who watched, rooted and fell for them despite having been a fan of the other two couples, too. IMO they belong on the list and I would consider them a super couple. That said, R&H and DnA belong as well per the prior posters point. And dare I say (this hurts to say since I have soap friends active in this thread, lol), both should rank higher.

What a crock. WLS has truely shown their bias in this choice. I'm an R&A - as friends and co-parents - but their "chemistry was never romantic.

Duke and Anna & Robert and Holly were light years ahead of Robert and Anna in the romance and chemistry departments.

When Luke and Laura left, Robert and Holly carried the show and helped to keep the ratings up. Once they left, and Holly died and Robert came back, Duke and Anna did the same.

WLS didn't care who the fans voted for, they knew who they wanted - and didn't want. They have tried to diminish the popularity of D&A and R&H to prop R&A. Shame on you, WLS. How do you expect fans to take anything you say for here on out without a grain of salt.

Yeah, this listing loses all credibility now. The comments from the site itself are what I find especially apalling. What in the world did Anna and Robert epitomize ? Low ratings and short term romances ? Yeah, they have that covered. This is supposed to be couples---not characters. They were a couple in 1991. That's it. Married about 6 months. Far past the great success of the 80's. The couples who epitomize that era are Luke and Laura, Robert and Holly, Duke and Anna and Frisco and Felicia. This makes no sense to me.

I love Robert and Anna. Their love story is soapy yet true to real life. They have a romantic back-story then being torn apart by lies and betrayal. Then after years of learning how to trust each other realizing they never stop truly loving one another. It is a story that comes full circle. I just believe the other relationships were needed to find each other at the end.

Actually while being a Robert and Anna fan. I can admit that D&A(no matter how annoying) and R&H belong on this list however I will stop short of saying higher than R&A. I think the s/l on NS is enough to make them higher than their other pairings. Because NS and other returns proves it has always been them for each other regardless of the other pairings. They want each other at the end.

It is utterly ridiculous not to include DnA and RnH on this list. It shows your site is biased. RnA worked best as best friends and coparents to Robin. Even Finola and Tristan both disagreed with the quicky reunion storyline in 1991.

Robert and HOlly were a chemistry free snoozefest that practically drove me from watching GH after YEARS of being a devoted fan up until that point. The ONLY thing that kept me watching was Alan, Monica, Rick and Lesley who SAVED the show from cancellation and brought it to number one yet were marginalized to ram boring R&H and their buddies Grant and Celia down my throat.

There was nothing SUPER about that Godawful pairing nor Anna being relegated to loser Duke because TR quit. TR and FH had more sexual and romantic chemistry having a conversation in the Webber livingroom than the so called 'super pairings' of R&H/D&A had collectively their whole storylines.

Definitive? As bores that never should've been paired? ITA Robert and Anna are the true supercouple and I'm glad WLS recognized it. But either way all I care about is what I think about it. I don't need website to validate my feelings or opinions.

contrary to every one else, this is the perfect choice. they may not have been defined as a couple for very long but their love shone through even when they were with other people. Robert & Anna had the best chemistry and they had more scenes together than Duke and Anna...even if they weren't always lovers. When they did get together, I think they had more love scenes than almost any other couple.